shifty

comparative shiftier · superlative shiftiest

1. Subject to frequent changes in direction.

   Off he raced, shuffling his bare feet through the hot, dry, shifty sand.

   1929, Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule, New York: Norton, Part 2, Chapter 3, p. 145

   2 more examples

   The Helfrich plan is simple and direct, based upon a minute knowledge of Indies waters: to strike & strike again & again at the Japanese supply lines. For most of his naval life, Java-born Admiral Helfrich has done nothing but study war with the Japanese. His Navy was designed for shifty, aggressive action within the narrow East Indian waters. In the first 54 days of war his ships and cooperating Dutch planes sank 54 Japanese vessels. "Ship-a-day Helfrich," the Dutch soon called him. His ideas dominated the enlarging and equipping of Java's main naval base at Surabaya, where heavy cruisers (but not battleships) can be fueled and repaired. For the Helfrich plan to succeed, Surabaya must be held.

   1942 February 23, “Dutchman's Chance”, in TIME, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2008

   The Kelsos crowding their horses up against the wagon, bumping it, making things shake inside: everything going shifty, unsteady.

   2002, Guy Vanderhaeghe, chapter 17, in The Last Crossing, New York: Grove, page 190

2. Moving from one object to another; not looking directly and steadily at the person with whom one is speaking.

   1886, George Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, Chapter 3, in Littel’s Living Age, Volume 168, No. 2178, 20 March, 1886, p. 761, […] his quick, shifty eyes turned from the manager to the lethal weapons over the chimney, then to the safe, then to the bank, and Mr. Thickens’s back.

   2 more examples

   His tinted glasses were not really opaque, but of a blue kind common enough, nor were the eyes behind them shifty, but regarded me steadily.

   1914, G. K. Chesterton, “The Head of Cæsar”, in The Wisdom of Father Brown, London: Cassell, published 1928, page 149

   He was thin, unsure of himself, sweet-natured and shifty-eyed; and he was Lata’s favourite.

   1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Boston: Little, Brown, Chapter 1.4, p. 10

3. idiomaticinformalHaving the appearance of being dishonest, criminal, or unreliable.

   He was a shifty character in a seedy bar, and I checked my wallet was still there after talking to him.

   1 more example

   ‘I don’t trust him,’ he goes on. ‘He is shifty. He is like a jackal sniffing around, looking for mischief. […]’

   1999, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 23, in Disgrace, New York: Viking, page 208

4. Resourceful; full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.

   Shifty and thrifty as old Greek or modern Scot, there were few things he could not invent, and perhaps nothing he could not endure.

   1857, Charles Kingsley, chapter 1, in Two Years Ago, volume 1, Cambridge: Macmillan, page 34